linux-cve-announce - CVE-2023-53594: driver core: fix resource leak in device

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Message-ID: <2025100428-CVE-2023-53594-563f@gregkh>
Date: Sat,  4 Oct 2025 17:51:48 +0200
From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To: linux-cve-announce@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>
Subject: CVE-2023-53594: driver core: fix resource leak in device_add()

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...nel.org>

Description
===========

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

driver core: fix resource leak in device_add()

When calling kobject_add() failed in device_add(), it will call
cleanup_glue_dir() to free resource. But in kobject_add(),
dev->kobj.parent has been set to NULL. This will cause resource leak.

The process is as follows:
device_add()
	get_device_parent()
		class_dir_create_and_add()
			kobject_add()		//kobject_get()
	...
	dev->kobj.parent = kobj;
	...
	kobject_add()		//failed, but set dev->kobj.parent = NULL
	...
	glue_dir = get_glue_dir(dev)	//glue_dir = NULL, and goto
					//"Error" label
	...
	cleanup_glue_dir()	//becaues glue_dir is NULL, not call
				//kobject_put()

The preceding problem may cause insmod mac80211_hwsim.ko to failed.
sysfs: cannot create duplicate filename '/devices/virtual/mac80211_hwsim'
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x8e/0xd1
sysfs_warn_dup.cold+0x1c/0x29
sysfs_create_dir_ns+0x224/0x280
kobject_add_internal+0x2aa/0x880
kobject_add+0x135/0x1a0
get_device_parent+0x3d7/0x590
device_add+0x2aa/0x1cb0
device_create_groups_vargs+0x1eb/0x260
device_create+0xdc/0x110
mac80211_hwsim_new_radio+0x31e/0x4790 [mac80211_hwsim]
init_mac80211_hwsim+0x48d/0x1000 [mac80211_hwsim]
do_one_initcall+0x10f/0x630
do_init_module+0x19f/0x5e0
load_module+0x64b7/0x6eb0
__do_sys_finit_module+0x140/0x200
do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x46/0xb0
</TASK>
kobject_add_internal failed for mac80211_hwsim with -EEXIST, don't try to
register things with the same name in the same directory.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2023-53594 to this issue.

Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Issue introduced in 4.9 with commit cebf8fd16900fdfd58c0028617944f808f97fe50 and fixed in 5.15.99 with commit 8d389e363075c2e1deb84a560686ea92123e4b8b
	Issue introduced in 4.9 with commit cebf8fd16900fdfd58c0028617944f808f97fe50 and fixed in 6.1.16 with commit d1dbff10c6cd3b43457f3efd3c9c4950009635bf
	Issue introduced in 4.9 with commit cebf8fd16900fdfd58c0028617944f808f97fe50 and fixed in 6.2.3 with commit f39d21154db87545d8f0b25d13c326f37cc32239
	Issue introduced in 4.9 with commit cebf8fd16900fdfd58c0028617944f808f97fe50 and fixed in 6.3 with commit 6977b1a5d67097eaa4d02b0c126c04cc6e8917c0
	Issue introduced in 3.10.105 with commit e7f6e3c9db4b6f259c89fd05728d024ab32acd71
	Issue introduced in 3.12.70 with commit a93a63333dbdb182b87e8cc99df8b4474f867acb
	Issue introduced in 4.4.40 with commit 37de955c11b59050346e530143c20b10b4846527
	Issue introduced in 4.8.16 with commit 645897231f960590220144b06d1f994b7eb88326

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2023-53594
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.

Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	drivers/base/core.c

Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d389e363075c2e1deb84a560686ea92123e4b8b
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d1dbff10c6cd3b43457f3efd3c9c4950009635bf
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f39d21154db87545d8f0b25d13c326f37cc32239
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6977b1a5d67097eaa4d02b0c126c04cc6e8917c0